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"It seems like the top executives are getting paid more for poor performance," Fox said.
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400% increase in direct-buy advertising based on redesigning this page.
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This is such an interesting topic that asks a fundamental question. In the age of the internet, what about our private lives is the business of our employers?
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Gretchen Morgenson has been doing a yeoman's job of covering the mortgage crisis since before it was a crisis.
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“In a city just inundated with bottle service and things of that nature, that’s not me, and also ultra-hip Brooklyn ‘I don’t bathe and I have a beard’ is not me.” HAHAHAHAHAHA
December 2007 Archives
I'm not a huge fan of the Politico, but I've got to say that their Kingmaker political prediction site is mighty cool. Politics nerds like me get to compete with each other and predict the minutiae of the important primary races. Of course, I should have known it was built by Publi.us, the same guys who created Fantasy Congress.
My friend Adam to me: "Great, now you're one of those iPhone guys."
Yes, I am.
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Interesting points of view and perspectives on the future of the web.
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“Scratch-off tickets are to the lottery what crack is to cocaine,” said State Senator Eliot Shapleigh, a Democrat who represents El Paso." (Really? This was the best analogy he could use?)
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I probably need to look into something like this soon.
I was having lunch in midtown with my friend Jon(n) a few weeks ago when we started joking about how I'd make an excellent TV prognosticator/pundit. It's my dream job, really; just set me in front of a camera and I'll give you an opinion on just about anything you throw at me.
So Jonn threw out "the economy" and asked me for my 2008 outlook. I said that January would bring a downturn in the market as retail sales numbers disappointed investors, especially because they were employing steep discounts before the holiday to draw consumers into stores. Combined with the prospect of further downturns in the housing market resulting from upcoming rate adjustments on ARMs, it seems to me that the economy will be unstable for the next year (at least). It turns out I wasn't far off the mark so far, though of course I couldn't have predicted the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. As a news junkie and someone who follows world affairs on an hourly basis, that has pretty much shaped my day so far. The Times is running a photo of her at this morning's rally; I presume it's just moments before her death.
Go watch the trailer for the new Batman movie. It looks absolutely fantastic. As the article there says, it looks like it has the potential to be the best action movie in years.
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"Simple put, the U.S. has to go into "let's save the federal government from bankruptcy" mode. If we don't then we're going to have worse trouble then you've ever seen."
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Hahahaha.
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Bob Herbert, perennially under-appreciated Times columnist, hits another one out of the park.
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Wow.
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This is an interesting post about business models online, and also has been my working theory for online business for the past few years.
This LA Times article is fantastic. Anonymous EPA staffers have come forward to report that, with wide consensus, they advised Administrator Stephen Johnson to grant California's request for a waiver to implement tougher pollution standards. Check this quote:
"California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," said an EPA staffer. "We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts." EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced Wednesday that because President Bush had signed an energy bill raising average fuel economy that there was no need or justification for separate state regulation. He also said that California's request did not meet the legal standard set out in the Clean Air Act. But his staff, which had worked for months on the waiver decision, concluded just the opposite, the sources said Thursday. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media or because they feared reprisals.
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Rudy Giuliani: "CD Player" Really?
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Little known facts about Japan - they kill whales for "research," but apparently perform very little research and just eat the whales.
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"When senior Democrats, such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, explain why impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is off the table, they cite their fears of hostility from the American news media."
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Submarines? Crazy!
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“It was not until both of us left the House and came to the Senate that we developed a different kind of relationship and friendship that, frankly, most senators don’t have the opportunity to do," Mr. Craig said of Mr. Lott. --Oh reeeally?
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Debunking some medical myths.
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Ross recommends...must try.
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I don't yet use Twitter, though I had a conversation with someone yesterday who highly recommended I start.
I'll just preface this by saying that I am an Edwards supporter, but I found this both accurate and funny:
On the Democratic side, John Edwards is a tough call because he has the right idea. But there was a thing with Edwards from 2004 that I can't seem to shake. And I've really, really tried. During one of the primary debates, Howard Dean stood up to answer a question. As was the campaign fashion at the time, Dean rolled up his sleeves. Then, behind him, I spotted John Edwards whose eyes suddenly widened at Dean's sleeve-rolling as if to say, Oh crap, I should roll up my sleeves now or else I won't be awesome like Howard. Then he quickly rolled up his sleeves.(From Bob Cesca)
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I'd really like a set of these.
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Love this chart.
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Highlights her sense of humor? Really?
...and other interested parties.
As a site devoted to Pennsylvania politics, should we have covered the Alycia Lane mini-scandal? Without discussing it, Rob and I both opted out of writing about it, but I wonder if we made the right decision.
Feel free to e-mail or comment.
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Some great tips. :-)
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A few surprising answers as to what voters really look for in a presidential candidate.
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Loving John Edwards.
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When Fred D. Thompson was asked to name his favorite possession in an Associated Press survey released Friday and answered, “trophy wife,”...
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I wonder if this is a relatively isolated story or a widespread consequence of free trade zones.
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Will this have any impact on Huckabee's recent rise in the polls? It was all legal but still disturbing...
I'll echo Tim Dickinson here...this New York Magazine review just about sums up the Kindle's aesthetic appeal:
It looks like the unloved remnant of one of those wild nights back in 1987, when an Etch-a-Sketch drank too much Bartles & Jaymes and ended up locked in a three-way with a graphing calculator and a credit-card swiper.
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Byron is the Man!
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"If Republicans want to filibuster a bill, Rangel said, Reid should keep the bill on the Senate floor and force the Republicans to talk it to death." THANK YOU Charlie Rangel!
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Hahaha - great post.
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Read the cow analogy. Seriously funny.
Favorite analogy all week, courtesy of the Guardian:
Bush is a bit like an unhinged iconoclast who has arbitrarily decided he doesn't believe in cows, and loudly and repeatedly denies their existence until you get so annoyed you drive him to a farm and show him a cow, and he shakes his head and continues to insist there's no such thing. At which point it moos indignantly, but he claims not to hear it, so in exasperation you drag him into the field and force him to touch the cow, and milk the cow, and ride around on the cow's back. And, finally, he dismounts and says, "That was fun'n'all, but dagnammit, I still don't believe in no cow." And then he shoots it in the head regardless, just to be on the safe side. Just so it isn't a threat.
This weekend, I had the privilege of joining open government advocates from around the world to discuss the future of government data. Governments around the world produce a massive amount of information, and usually it's held close to the chest rather than shared with the public. When it is shared with the public, it's often done so in a way that limits the public ability to fully utilize that data. This prevents citizens from fully engaging in civic decision-making and from using the vast power of the internet to remix, re-visualize, and develop innovative perspectives on government information.
While I think it's inappropriate for me to talk about most specifics of my time working in Congress for Chairman Waxman, I've developed a passion for open government and citizen access to government.
After gathering in Sebastopol, CA, we worked vigorously this weekend to propose a set of eight principles of open government data. My hope is that these principles are a starting point for serious discussion of how government entities can enhance the value of their data and fully open it to citizens.
While I won't rehash all the principles here, there are a few key points I want to remark on.
The government's data is your data. In a democracy, information produced by government belongs to citizens. I think we often forget that, and our government does too. We're looking for a paradigm-shift that changes the presumption on the part of government from "name a good reason why we should release X" to "name a good reason why we shouldn't."
Not only should government's presumption of release change, but they have a responsibility to ensure that information is readily available to the public. This means more than "we have a website." You should be able to download, query, and remix government information as much as you want. For techies, this means bulk download, API, and consumer website access. For non-techies, think of it as retail versus wholesale; government should offer data at a retail level on their own website, but also allow bulk access to encourage the unknowable creativity that results from making data public on the web.
There's much more to say and much more work to be done, but I think this past weekend was a good start.
Update: I've found a bit of time to read a few posts out there and I'm still searching for more.
Bradley Horowitz, Ethan Zuckerman, Micah Sifry, John Geraci, and you? (E-mail me or comment if you've written about this!)
(PPS - To everybody at the meeting [and other interested folks]: I've been trying to find you on Facebook so we can more readily stay in touch. You can find me first by clicking here.)
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Very nice look at "micro-inflation" in New York.
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Yep, I agree that this means more trouble.
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I was here and want to talk about this, but my travel schedule is nearly unmanagable right now, so it will have to wait a bit.
Sorry I haven't been attentive lately; I've been traveling much more than is healthy, but that will change in a few weeks. In the meantime, I am trying to find some time to write about some important open government work I've been helping with.
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Pretty interesting
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Totally works.
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Fantastic Pogue column.
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These are pretty cool. (via Thrillist)
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FINALLY someone is paying attention to my pet issue.
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Nice photo of Ann!
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This is pretty interesting and gives me hope for John Edwards.
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Nice work.
I'm totally loving Radiohead's House of Cards right now. One of those songs that just feels so in the moment for me recently. What are you listening to?
(Here's a live version from their San Francisco show)
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Nice for the winter?
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Antoher pair to consider
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"The Department of Defense is the largest energy consumer in the United States, racking up an energy bill of $13.6 billion last year, up from $10.9 billion the year before." Lots more important stuff in this article, but I liked that tidbit.
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Liar liar, pants on fire.
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Ben Stein is increasingly sounding like just another talking head. Where are the facts, Ben?
